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Dec 25, 2007 10:10 am US/Central
Good Question: How Did Santa Get His Start?
(WCCO)
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Many Europeans believed St. Nick left gifts in children's shoes on his Birthday in early December.
You better watch out, you better not cry. You better not pout, I'm telling you why. Next week, Santa Claus is coming to town.
The Jolly Old Elf has double-checked his list and he's just starting to pack his sleigh. We all know Mr. Claus and the reindeer take flight from his workshop at the North Pole, but where did Santa Claus come from?
The original Mr. Claus hails from modern day Turkey. He was a real man named Nicholas who became a Bishop known for his kindness and generosity. After his death, he became a saint and we now know him as St. Nick.
Many Europeans believed St. Nick left gifts in children's shoes on his Birthday in early December. The Dutch brought the tradition to America in the late 1700s and the legend evolved.
First, his named changed. In Dutch, he was known as
Sint Nikolaas and his nickname was
Sinter Klaas. Here in America, that became Santa Claus. But we didn't know much about our St. Nick until 1822 when Clement Moore wrote a little poem.
"Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house," said a woman in Minneapolis, reciting the famous prose.
That poem became our Santa story but we still did not have a commonly accepted idea of what this Santa Claus looked like. So, in the late 1800s, political cartoonist Thomas Nast used the poem's words about the "jolly old elf" and his "belly that shook like a bowl full of jelly" and drew up a modern day St. Nick. His cartoons showed him as a toymaker and the vocation stuck.
We also owe our modern day image of Santa to the Coca-Cola Company. In the 1930s, they enhanced Santa's red and white garb to match their company colors and used him in widely popular Christmas advertisements.
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